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He felt that withering bitterness of soul
Quaintly denominated the 'blue devils,’

And thought of Bonaparte and Belisarius,

Pompey, and Colonel Burr, and Caius Marius."

So ends Halleck's longest production. There is much fine. poetical thought in it, elegant versification, and an occasional unexpectedness of "rhyme and reason," but the author lacks that range of the pathetic and the humorous which rendered Byron the most characteristic poet of the present age. Don Juan is the undoubted modern epic. The want of earnestness of the times is admirably mirrored in that wonderful poem. Half jest, half superstition, the world's face is there seen in all its incongruous phases. The mixed and uncertain state of the human mind had its epitome in Byron. Capable of the mightiest and the meanest actions, and often performing them well nigh together, the gloomy, infidel, devotional poet was the perfect representative of his age. It is this wonderful mobility of character which has made him the most popular writer since Shakspeare. He has an aspect for all classes of men. In his earlier efforts we behold the boy imitating his favorite authors. An insult roused him, and he rushed, under the inspiration of rage, into a field where he felt his strength. He then knew his power, and worked out, as caprice or accident prompted, his mighty poetical nature. The chivalric and romantic, the pathetic, the humorous, the satirical and supernatural, the gloomy pastoral and the historical or traditional, all were successfully thrown before the public, in different poems. At last,

by a singular effort, his last poem combined all these elements, and therefore Don Juan will always be the completest representation of a poet's idiosyncrasy ever revealed to his fellow men. In this many-sidedness Byron holds supreme dominion over his contemporaries. Wordsworth surpasses him in the intensity of his worship of nature. Moore, in his playful elaboration of metaphors, conventional elegances, and finely-edged wit. Scott, in the range of human character; although the objectivity of the novelist, and the subjectivity of the poet, render them perhaps unfit parallels. But in adaptability to the masses, as existing in the nineteenth century, no poet has so completely taken their nature upon him as the author of Don Juan. Even "Childe Harold," gloomy and subjective as it is, becomes a phase of the human mind, as shadowed in the present age, and has its root as much in the world as in the poet's heart. We make these remarks to show why we do not think that Mr. Halleck is the Byron of America. One half of his poetical labors is an imitation of the noble poet's greatest work. Materials for a poem of this description are not to be found in a young republic; the magazine is in ancient monarchies. Time is a vast storehouse of absurdity, solemnities, sorrows, and jests. This is the gamut of human nature, and it requires centuries to learn its science of harmony.

We conclude our notice of Halleck by assuring him that the Anglo-Saxons will expect finer poems than he has yet produced; it is in him, we know, for has he not revealed some of his powers by such lines as these? They come forth to the outer world just as a strain of melody bursts from a banquet hall,

where high revel is held, when the door is opened to admit

some favored guest.

"Strike-till the last armed foe expires:
Strike-for your altars, and your fires;
Strike-for the green graves of your sires,
God, and your native land!"

RICHARD HENRY DANA.

THERE are a simplicity and individuality about Dana's writings, which give him the decided impress of being a man of more originality than he really possesses.

There is less reliance upon foreign sources for his subjects; he likewise treats them in a manner of his own, which compels the reader to respect him for his intention, if he cannot applaud him for the successful result of his experiment.

We shall treat of his poems first, and then consider him as a lecturer and essayist.

He is well known to the public as the author of the "Buccaneer," a poem of great merit, and full of fine thoughts, simply and forcibly described.

His portrait of the freebooter himself is drawn with a vigorous pencil. There is a total absence of all tawdry or adventitious embellishments in this old poet's verse, which stands out in bold relief to the artificial elegances and cuckoo-note tracks of many modern and fashionable authors.

"Twelve years are gone since Matthew Lee

Held in this isle unquestioned sway;

A dark, low, brawny man was he;

His law,' It is my way!'

Beneath his thickset brows a sharp light broke

From small grey eyes: his laugh a triumph spoke."

This is a bold Roman kind of verse, which at once tells upon the reader. It somewhere or other strongly reminds us of Wordsworth's opening stanza of "Rob Roy :"

"A famous man was Robin Hood,
The English ballad-singer's joy;
But Scotland boasts a man as good,
It is her bold Rob Roy."

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"The good old rule, the simple plan,

That they shall take who have the power,

And they shall keep who can."

These coincidences are, however, unavoidable in poetry when they partake of the same peculiar nature, and many of Dana's simple, manly productions, remind us of the poet-laureate's. The American writer dashes off with a few vigorous touches a graphic picture of the old Buccaneer.

"Cruel of heart, and strong of arm;

Loud in his sport, and keen for spoil,
He little recked of good or harm,—

Fierce both in mirth and toil.

Yet like a dog could fawn, if need there were;
Speak mildly when he would, or look in fear!"

Of another order in poetry, we quote some verses which

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